How to Keep Your Customers for Good

Photo by Halacious on Unsplash

Have you ever been on a really tight timeline and prayed that everything runs according to the plan?

Did everything go as planned?

Usually, the answer is no.

Sometimes it is our own fault and sometimes it is because of things beyond our control.

In my case, it was because of the gaps in UX design on the websites of three large online companies.

My deadline was tight and I really needed the tasks to be completed smoothly and on time. My customers where relying on me and I was relying on these internet services.

But did everything go smoothly?

No.

And I will be using the competitor services next time.

So here are 7 UX mistakes to avoid and thus keep your customers for life!

1. Account authorization

The first thing a user wants to do prior to using an online service is log into their account.

I had not used my account in some time as I only need this service once a year.

But when I need it, I need it.

I went to log in and saw the company had added text verification.

Okay, increasing your security. I like it.

Except……

my phone number had changed so I could not get in. This same process happened with another one of the three companies.

Company One:

• I could not verify my account via text as the phone number on file was an old phone number.
• I clicked “Cannot verify” and I got a modal that said to call customer service to get help.
• I called — they are not open on weekends, but gave me an email via their automated message (this email was not available on the website).
• I emailed their support team.

2. Email messaging

• They told me in their automated email response to call their support line.

….. The circles. 🙄

When your messaging sends users in circles and wastes their time….that’s a no no.

Assume your customers are smart and resourceful and have already tried everything AND assume they have tried nothing. Provide excess information and multiple easy, thorough, end-to-end processes for resolving issues.

Company Two:

• I could not log in and thus searched for a customer service number and found a help chatbot.
• I was asked to sign in to my account before I could use the chatbot.

Hmmm…….

3. Contact us information

Offer more than one way for users to contact support and do not require them to sign in as most user issues have to do with signing in — forgotten email, password, username or security question answer, a lost pin, or text verification/authorization issues.

• I kept searching and found no ways to contact this large company unless I logged in.
• I had to created a new account so I could ask for access to my old account. Now I had two accounts.

4. Customer service chatbots

Since I now had an account I could use, I completed the time-sensitive tasks that I had wanted to do in my original account. But I still wanted access to my old account.

• I sent a message in the chatbot to get support.
• The bot did not provide anything that was helpful in gaining access to my old account. Once again, an oversight.
• I told the bot it was unhelpful by clicking the “Was this helpful?” Yes or No button and it sent me to a customer representative message chain.
• I began the conversation explaining my situation. Then I was given an automatic message that said a representative would get back to me……

When? I have no information on how long I need to wait. If I miss their message and get back to them later will they still be there? There was no sound that would ping me when they responded…. so much missing user information.

I sat there watching the chat box, waiting………and waiting…… and finally I moved on. I checked back 5 minutes later and there was a response from the rep. Great!

• They wanted more details so I replied back. But I guess I had waited too long because then I got a response back from another rep, person 2, who had to spend time reading my first two messages and understand the context of my problem.
• Again, another question for me. I responded. Person 3 responded back immediately. Wait….what? Why am I talking to another new person right after talking to person 2?! Will it change every time? Is this not even a person and there is just an array of 20 names that this bot is cycling through? 🧐 Is this a way to get customers to drop the issue and move on?
• So I messaged back and person 4 replied. Ugh!
• But this time they stuck around and we had a conversation. They fixed the issue and understood my frustration. This took about 30 minutes just to let me into my account.
• I thanked them for their help and person 5 responded with “You’re Welcome” and an apology for the frustrating experience.

…crickets….

5. Information displayed & caches

Company Three:

With this company I was sending products all over the US and needed to make sure it got to the right people.

• I began placing orders and then went to look at my order receipts after the order had been placed, to double check an address I thought I might have put in incorrectly
• There was no information. There were no buttons, no links, no tabs to see the address I had sent the product to…Huh?

Whenever a customer is shipping something the address should be displayed.

Period.

However, there was light at the end of the tunnel as I found the tracking information on the order.

• I clicked on the link and was shown the tracking information in the carrier’s website. Even their site didn’t have the address.
• I called a customer support representative, who was very determined to help (yay!) and they could not figure it out. Puzzled because they saw the addresses on their end, they asked me to use another browser.
• I logged in and saw the information I wanted.

“Clear your cache” — I was told.

Now, being an engineer I kind of 😬 okay with this, but a user should never have to clear their cache.

Why do I need to take extra technical steps to see information on your site? If I don’t normally have to do that to gain access to information, why do I need to do it on your site?

Anyways, I cleared it and the problem was fixed.

6. Follow up surveys

The one out of the three companies that had really provided the most painful experience, sent me a survey a day later, asking how well they did.

I was happy to fill it out as I hoped maybe they could account for some unique user situations and provide more options for solving problems. By the time I went to fill out the survey, the link had expired.

Ironic.

7. User memory

(Kind of cheating with this one…)

Did you notice how I remembered every detail of all three interactions?

This experience happen weeks ago, yet as I am writing this I still know everything that led to my very frustrating day.

I could not tell you the log in process, customer service process, contact us options, chatbot functionality, follow up email verbiage, or final survey expiration date for any other company that I frequently use and enjoy.

But I remember every UX detail from these three.

Personally go through the user experience and think of every unique way in which it can go wrong and then design fallback options for those situations. Never offer users a cyclical experience. That feels like a trap.

Notify users if you are going to require extra verification based on their account information. When they log in prior to your security change, have a very obvious message prompting them to update their information.

Provide messaging on how your site works. Do I need to wait for the rep’s chat response or can I go do something else and respond when I can? If I am supposed to call a number for support, also tell me the hours this support line is open and so on….

If you want good feedback, do not put an expiration date on that feedback. People are busy and although they may want to give feedback, it may not be on the top of their list in that moment.

If certain browsers interact with your site in a certain way and you absolutely cannot do anything about this by changing the way your site interacts with browsers, then add verbiage so the customer knows they might need to do something on their end to solve their problem, such as clearing the cache.

Lastly, the less interactions the user needs to have with your site to accomplish a task, generally the better your site and customer experience is.

The less the customer has to consciously think about the user experience, the more you can consider yourself a master of UX.

When they do need help, make it easy and simple for them to get it. Leave them with a fresh light taste in their mouth, like a nice summer wine.